Teams refuse to play behind closed doors. Photo: Getty.
The two-time Liga 1 champion, Alianza Lima, and six other soccer teams from Peru refused to compete in the opening day of the national championship this weekend after the announcement that it would be behind closed doors, they warned last night in a release.
Alianza Lima, Club FBC Melgar, Sport Boys Association, Club Deportivo Municipal, Deportivo Binacional, Club Cienciano and Club Cusco FC they have decided refuse to play after the announcement this Wednesday that the League was going to resume no public for security measures.
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The Liga 1 Opening Tournament started this weekend behind closed doors after two days in which the championship was suspended due to the anti-government demonstrations that plague all of Peru since December 11 and total 66 deaths.
“We state that We will not participate in League 1 2023 until the Peruvian Football Federation lifts the irregular precautionary measure that it has managed to impose arbitrarily and illegally by going to the Judiciary and that puts the present and the future of Peruvian soccer at risk,” the teams cited in the statement reported.
They expressed that playing without an audience “attentive” against the economies of the clubswho have in the sale of tickets an “extremely important” source of income for their institutional objectives and work plans for the short, medium and long term.
They consider that the television transmission and private interests have been prioritized, without considering the future claims and returns that they will have to assume in front of fans who already had their tickets for this weekend.
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The clubs declared that the president of the FPF, Agustín Lozano, “does not represent the interests of the clubs accordingly” and for this reason they request “his immediate resignation from office.”
“We thank the Government for the initiative to support sport and professional football as a basic element of society and in this line we hope that it will call all sports clubs and that together we make an effort to unlock the judicial, institutional and operational issues for the soon restart of the League 1 championship.”the statement said.
